C-NS softball blanks Liverpool, 12-0

Seven-run second inning breaks it open for Northstars

Cicero-North Syracuse pitching ace Sydney O'Hara goes through her motion and sends one to the plate in Thursday's game at Liverpool. O'Hara got her third consecutive shutout, allowing two hits and striking out 14, as the Northstars beat the Warriors 12-0.
Hal Henty

Liverpool  Liverpool softball leadoff hitter Alicia Hansen won her personal battle with Cicero-North Syracuse ace Sydney O'Hara, twice picking up hits against a pitcher who had already thrown two no-hitters this season.

However, that was one of the few bright spots for the Warriors on a windswept Thursday afternoon as the Northstars rolled to a 12-0 victory in the latest chapter of this long-time rivalry.

It didn't matter much that C-NS was short-handed, missing senior Kelly Corbin, who was in New York City watching her older brother, Patrick, pitch for the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Yankees.

And the conditions - a 25-mile-per-hour wind, blowing in from right field, that caused all sort of adventures with any ball hit in the air - couldn't stop the Northstars, either, as it mowed down the last team other than itself to win a Section III Class AA title, back in 2009.

Dana Nicoletti, pitching for Liverpool, appeared to have engineered an ideal start, holding C-NS scoreless in the first inning and getting the first two outs in the top of the second. Then it all fell apart, starting with the bottom of the Northstars' order.

Freshman Beth Bonin hit a two-out double. Eighth-grader Breanna Melfi, getting a start in place of Corbin, drew a walk, and Brooke Szabo's single scored Bona.

After Lauren Floyd walked, Amy Van Hoven hit a hard grounder to short, and when it was mishandled, two more runs scored, making it 3-0. O'Hara walked, and a throwing error on Lindsey Silfer's grounder brought two more runs home before Morgan Phillips delivered a two-run double.

All told, C-NS had picked up seven runs after the first two batters were retired in the second. O'Hara started another rally in the fourth with a double, leading to three runs, two of them coming home on Bonin's double, her third hit of the day. O'Hara would also get three hits.